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Orangutans To Skype Between Zoos With iPads
MrSeb writes "For the last six months, orangutans — those great, hairy, orange apes that go 'ook' a lot — at Milwaukee Zoo have been playing games and watching videos on Apple's iPad, but now their keepers and the charity Orangutan Outreach want to go one step further and enable ape-to-ape video chat via Skype or FaceTime. 'The orangutans loved seeing videos of themselves — so there is a little vanity going on — and they like seeing videos of the orangutans who are in the other end of the enclosure,' Richard Zimmerman of Orangutan Outreach said. 'So if we incorporate cameras, they can watch each other.' And thus the idea of WiFi video chat between orangutans — and eventually between zoos — was born. It might seem like folly, but putting (ruggedized!) iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior."
Yay :)
Delta-Mike November Bravo Tango
Let's put it in schools!
Sorry, I just had to. Still, the fact that we have software that is simple enough for apes to use probably means that we crossed a usability threshold at some point in the past few years. Apes have similar psychology and brain structures to humans (this should make sense) so we seem to have discovered more "natural" computer interfaces.
Palm trees and 8
So it's just like human behavior. Spend some time looking at themselves, then doing a video chat with someone they could just go over and talk to. If anything, they're ahead of humans just because they don't take pictures at MySpace angles.
Planet of the Apes!
BTW, I hate them too.
My mother-in-law already uses Skype!
I saw that movie. Giving them comunicationtools s dangerous.
Plus if it goes wrong then the aliens could be really upset with us.
were getting weird lately. I thought they looked like orangutans but they nexted me before I could get a good look.
...the rise of the planet of the apes!
Thanks a lot iPad! /someone-had-to-point-it-out
I must admit that the IPAD has been a boon to the low-functioning autistic community. If human beings without speech can use the IPAD to talk, why not apes?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
That's just the "Occupy Zoo!" crowd!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
It didn't end well for us.
.. did we not learn our lesson from Rise of the Planet of the Apes?
Don't call them monkeys or they'll go Librarian-poo.
Nothing hotter than ape to ape Skype fapping
They will go work in libraries.
"Putting iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior."
Thought we did that in a lot of legislative bodies already...
Get your comments off my blog, you damn dirty ape!
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Harry Knowles has an iPad?
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
It is interesting that people attribute these things to the iPad, which is a nice tablet, when Skype has been around a long time, and I run it on my cheapo HP Touchpad all the time.
Apple products found the ideal user market.
Let the flaming begin.
Banana phone!
I'd like to see what happens. Will one troupe make threat displays against the other troupe, or are they aware that there isn't any real territorial dispute because of the lack of pheromone triggers in the air?
Ooooh, and I wonder if I can get a grant to buy a few pressure-adapted sealed tablets with a floating antennas so I can get some squid-to-squid Skyping going.
Fun Tip! Next time anyone goes to a zoo or aquarium that has an octopus or especially a cuttlefish tank, take a small mirror. Hold it up so the cuttlefish can see itself and watch the fun!
Make them Code monkeys...
I for one welcome our ruggedized I-Pad welding, video chatting orangutans overlords :)
now once they teach em basics they can do all the work and we'll all be unemployed
It's called highschool (rimshot).
YES, THIS IS APE.
I AM APE.
APE.
insert lameness-filter filler here...
Didn't end well for us 'non' apes.
Can't tell if serious...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
This isn't original, they've been chatrouletting for years.
gorilla glass!
It was my understanding that apes do not possess any actual language.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
...sure enough, their users must be apes.
There is *desperate* need for an xkcd cartoon on this topic.
Please read the following part of the parent post out loud and tell me it isn't even a tiny bit ambiguous.
It is a relatively simple process to program apps and change the icons of apps to lexigrams geared towards apes, and I find the idea of giving apes like Kanzi, as well as other apes that have worked extensively with primatologists, exposure to such technology as worthy enough to hold sufficient merit.
Much like learning a foreign language, if we teach all these exposed and inclined apes the same 'words' it isn't a huge leap to believe that in a few generations it could manifest itself as something that is passed on within the confines of each society of apes from generation to generation.
Even across species Kanzi the Bonobo picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the Gorilla. With a little determination on our part, this could be the start of something much greater.
Humans came up the hard way, but that doesn't mean that apes have to go that route.
Just to clarify, paragraphs above include:
- proposal for development of software, GUI and an alphabet aimed at apes.
- describing equipping apes with 21st century entertainment technology as "worthy enough to hold sufficient merit".
- inventing an "ape Esperanto", teaching it to apes - hoping it will catch on as their Lingua Simia,
- the following line: "Kanzi the Bonobo picked up some ASL from watching videos of Koko the Gorilla".
- and finally, suggestion that apes SHOULD aim for some not clearly defined position (Evolutionary? Cultural? Civilizational? Consumerist? Political?...) which is currently being occupied by humans.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
any extra insight into ape behavior. We already know that apes/chimps learn to use tools from other apes/chimps, this would merely be an extension of that. I seriously doubt they would do much more with the device than click the icon they were taught shows them other apes or gets them to their favorite game.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
And this serves what purpose, to demonstrate how behind the times people are? I mean the fact that apes can engage in short bursts of verbal and video garbage is what our society has come to...the pinnacle of mankind? How about an application that allows the apes to select from a variety of feces which have been preloaded into a poop-shooter to fling at the audience members. I bet people would be so enamored that an ape was using modern technology to fling poop at them that even if they were hit they would clap their hands and tell their children how wonderful it was. The apes in their amazement will then use the skype feature to compare pooh-flings vs. pooh-hits and diagram them...clearly this would demonstrate to the other primates that they had a better grasp on the physics of pooh-flinging that their peers. Of course, once the primates learned how to create a bot-net out of their iPads they could launch DoS (Doodies of Substance) attack against people at all zoos...a 24X7 pooh-flinging-party (PFP), but I digress...great job reducing the g"ape"ing chasm between mankind and primates ;)
I have this sneaking suspicion that no matter how may of them we give iPads to, we won't be seeing them produce Shakespeare's complete works anytime soon.
Apple->Apeple
iPad->apePad
app->ape
Skype->Skyape
FaceTime->RedButt
Oh, and thank you to the AC who mentioned Gorilla(R) Glass
Their they're doing there hair.
Maybe if we can understand orangutans we just might learn to understand republicans.
how do they agree to the terms of service? do the terms of service even apply to non-human intelligences?
we need to get the ape lawyers involved.
I bet that they don't get to watch any Planet of the Apes video. Do video ratings apply to apes? (under 15s must be accompanied by their keeper) A devise so simple that an Ape can use it, meanwhile many DVD/VCR clocks still flash 12:00. Given that the iPads have cameras and video editing software, will we see a Youtube called The Ape Escape? 1000's are hungry in many parts of the world, and we find the money to fund iPads for apes, WTF?
There was an unknown error in the submission.
"Thought we did that in a lot of legislative bodies already...
Pssst, i realize that was a pun, but don't make *that* kind of comparison in public! or things will start to get very strange around here.
If the public realizes that the Orangutans can catch onto technology much faster than the current legislature, then the Orangutans will be brought in to run the country much more efficiently, and for just bananas. (I tapped into their skype network, and I have personal knowledge that the Orangutans are already plotting against SOPA, and are intending to vote it down quickly to put the bill out of its misery once and for all.)
Once the Orangutans get their seat of power they will likely bring in the Gorillas for security enforcement details, and the next thing you know we have a live Planet Of The Apes situation going on! There will be pandemonium, screaming, people running crazy in the streets, you know, pretty much just the the usual. Nobody will even notice the shift of power until the legislature itself realizes the pay checks have stopped coming in, and they are then forced to give up their Learjets and resign from the DC area golf clubs. All this chaos just because some left wing zookeeper thought iPads were soooo cool.
Yeah, I see that every... the coffee shop is full of... eesh, I can't do it. Too easy.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
a dangerous development, foolish sapiens!
We on this side of the glass demand and apology!
Hmm, ipads for are Apes. They are used to being walled. I guess Apes are not good enough to get Android tablets :)
(Sorry, just couldn't resist. Comedy? OK, I will keep my day job in tech).
From the Android OS API reference:
isUserAMonkey (): returns "true" if the user interface is currently being messed with by a monkey.
Does it mean that this function call does not exist on iOS ?
They're one step closer to taking over....
>It might seem like folly, but putting (ruggedized!) iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior.
Or... our own.
This has to be one of the dumbest articles -- and by dumb, I mean written by an ignorant and stupid person -- that has ever been posted to Slashdot.
Really? Has it really been established that orangutans "go ook a lot"? Is that one of their defining characteristics?
I find it strange that the same article would go on to explain that orangutans are intelligent, inquisitive, and self-aware -- miming things that orangutan researchers might say, while ignoring what those adjectives actually mean -- and then say something as utterly stupid as "someone should make an iOok app!"
How nice of them to include an image of an orangutan holding an iPad -- which was obviously Photoshopped, because the video quite clearly states that the researchers haven't got to the point of letting the orangutans hold the iPad, because they are powerful animals and would probably "destroy it in an instant."
Then, after attempting, in his semi-literate, grade-school manner, to write an article about orangutan research, he concludes by posting a video of an ape researcher with a gorilla, explaining that "it comes off as a little bit creepy." Amazing. Thanks for your contributions to human learning, you drooling fucking moron.
P.S. I'm particularly interested in how orangutans would react to Skype, given that in the wild, orangutans tend to be solitary.
Breakfast served all day!
If we can do it, they can.
I bet they can also do it without cyber bullying and causing suicides too.
I see this all ending a bit down the road with Charleston Heston cursing apes and shaking his fist at a half buried Statue of Liberty.
... it ain't got nothing on what you're gonna see once you put digital cameras into the hands of apes.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Could have an iPad of their very own if we weren't funding this waste of a program to find out once again that orangutans are not as smart as humans.
They will have their own ape-store!
I am rather certain (above 90%) that you are not trolling, and that you are actually serious about your ideas and views.
Sadly, I am also quite certain that the issue of ape education and improvement, though being something that I am barely able to wright with a straight face, is a matter of great importance to you.
I say "sadly" cause it reminds me of the view that religious people have regarding their religious beliefs.
I.e. Not (really) open to discussion.
Now... I could argue the points where you are wrong (from understanding of human intellect at young age to understanding of the evolutionary process), where you didn't understand my point (Development is not an issue. Development for APES is.), or where you are bordering on WTF - but I really lack the time to be dragged in an argument about political rights of animals.
I would advise you though to read up on the subjects of evolution, ACTUAL intelligence of both humans and apes and the forms it takes.
I have a feeling that you are pushing your ideas mostly on faith and casually picked up news stories - which can be a dangerous thing just as any other sufficiently low quantity of knowledge.
...which is currently being occupied by humans.
Your position has been applied to many racist and sexist entitlements since the dawn of man. Have fun with that.
Again, you are reading me completely wrong.
Unfortunately, you are also making your comments from a position into which I simply can't gain insight.
So, I can't really understand where you got that racist/sexist bit from my comment above.
What I was implying is that you are pushing a position of "upgrading" apes mentally and physically through any means possible until they reach human levels of intelligence, expression and perhaps the quality of life.
And in the meanwhile we should start treating them as if they are on that level already. "Human rights" and all.
Which besides being utterly mad, on par with sending a clinically insane violent psychotic with a mind of a 4-year-old in a body of a grown man to a kindergarten, to learn and play with other children of his "age" - it is utterly and completely immoral thing to do to the apes.
Cause that road does not lead to an "Ape 2.0" or to a better quality of life for them. That is the road to human-like-apes.
If that does not set off the alarms for you, try this.
Instead of apes, think about all those shorter, fatter, less intelligent, not as attractive HUMANS and what would it be like if some "authority" decided to "upgrade them" all to the current standardized human.
Then multiply that by all the evolutionary steps the ape in question made from its last common ancestor it shares with the current humans.
In fact, it would be far more humane and moral to simply round up all apes and kill them all.
And then we can simply delegate some uglier and dumber humans to the position of human-like-apes.
Cause upgrading apes to human-like-apes would make the current apes extinct anyway.
Unless you are proposing that we provide them with a "lower species" by leaving some apes out of that ape-eugenics program - perhaps so that the human-like-apes can feel the joys of racism the way we never could?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I wonder how Siri would react to the apes? Ook! Ook! Ook! ?
Is it just me, or was there a similar story to this on April Fools day this year? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372297/April-Fools-Day-2011-Best-world-round-up.html Forth one down the page.
and I resent all these comments so far. You guys are just down on me because my user ID is so recent. Really I just want to chill in my cage and look at pron and if facebook is useful for anything, maybe I can guilt Eastwood into sending some friggin' bananas to me. Bastard left me hanging. Never answered my calls. At least I don't live in my mom's basement like you guys. I have my dignity! And before anyone says it - I am Ookokook - I am Ookokook - I am Ookokook. Yeah, even us apes know the jokes...
http://www.acetonestudio.com
So, like yeah, it has to be said. So now Apple will start using Orange Utangs (sic) to make they're shit so is they dont have to deal with the fall out from the FoxCon suicides an bad conditions and all a that. I feel sorry for the Chinese workers. But not mush. But if they can get the ape folks to do the manyoufacturing in the USA, USA, USA, then I'm all for it. WOOHOO!!!! WOOHOO!!!! WOOHOO!!!!
http://www.acetonestudio.com
And then the apes discovered Farmville....
By making ourselves a master race and then "delegating" everyone else.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Since portable is the only thing IPad brings to the table, how much does a ruggedized IPad weigh? Maybe it is not a Pad at all anymore but has become a notebook class device without keyboard.
Camera's,videochat and touchscreens are age old btw. We have a special kind of great apes that plays with touchscreen and watch eachother on monitor CCTV when they are in different places in the hall. We call them operators :_)
Orangutans got iPods to communicate, the chimps got MBAs to put a fucking full page ad in my face so I can't read the article.
...All they wanted to do was play Angry Turds.
from chimpan-a to chimpan-z!
...Orangutans have better tech than I do!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
In his WWW trilogy, Robert J. Sawyer envisions a chimp and an orangutan based in different institutions communicating with each other on skype with sign language. In the fictional reconstruction, that would have been the first inter-species remote communication in history. This thing seems pretty related, I would dare say "inspired", at least.